Fire vs. Song

That practically describes what I had to go through all throughout the TD tournament last Sunday. 4 rounds, all 4 of them were playing Shakugan no Shana TD’s. I don’t really remember what happened specifically because it’s not as narratively memorable as L5R, butI can sum up on what I thought of these two TD’s during the tournament.

Macross Frontier: A simple deck to play. The only tech-y part in the deck is the Singer requirement and the fetch tech from Ranka. Not as explosive as Shana but it has that certain control aspect to it thanks to the -2000 Power Event card that can mop up pesky support cards with low Power and the Hurricane Climax. It’s definitely a simple deck to play though because there’s no Experience requirement.The best card that I can find riding in this deck is a 2/2 Ranka with 2 Soul damage with Encore. That is simply awesome.

Yet the cards require very specific and focused deck construction regarding the Song trait in order to work. Waiting for the boosters to arrive because it’ll have Pilots as well. We’ll see how it goes. For now, off the top of my head, the only other series that can mesh with Mac F is Idol Master, thanks to the Song trait.

Shakugan no Shana: This is a deck that I like. Very technical, has a good tricky combo feel to it that capitalizes on the Flame trait. Even coming into play and being Reversed will grant Power bonuses if your characters have Flame on it. Thanks to the Door Climax, you will find yourself with a good hand count most of the time. The deck also has a tutor card AND it gives +1000 Power as well, now that’s value.

That being said, the combo-licious setup means that the cards can come out to be horribly wrong. Shana decks are slightly more prone to suffer from luck problems than MF. Where in MF I can more or less feel confident that whatever I can draw will benefit me in some way, in Shana the bits and pieces of combo running amok might make you hesitate to “wait for that final piece”. Oh… the deck also has Level 0 with Encore. Super cool. The best card in the deck is the Shana TD rare. It can really kick butt.

So that’s the brief lowdown that I got from the TD tourney. There were a lot more Shana decks running around than Macross ones, showing its popularity in the area. There are a lot more meaningful decisions to be made this time around when Shana and Macross TD’s clash, especially in deciding to Encore or not. Either my play style has changed and evolved or the cards themselves require such calculations to be made, I’m not so sure.

Shana previews are being made as we speak, just go to Facebook and search for toysbar. The pictures are all there.

Now to wait for MF boosters to come in as well as BtD expansion from L5R.